What is Jet Lag and what does it feel like?

[simongr]

This is a serious question. I joke (sort of) with friends that I don't "do" jet lag but I am not really sure if I am special or ignorant...

I was chatting to a guy inbound to LHR this morning who used to do regular trips to the UK and he commented that "for a week afterwards I would feel like cough" - this is my interpretation of jet lag but I never experience it...

For context I arrived this morning into LHR in J on QF from SYD. I grabbed a shower at the AA lounge (cold due to broken hot water), drove to Bath (90 mins), had lunch, drove back to London and it is just hitting 8:40 and am about to have dinner and likely to be asleep by 9:30. I will be up about 6AM to Skype back to home.

For me functioning like this is not suffering from jet lag - should I beware of other signs?

 

[amaroo]

FWIW I've never had any problems whilst away......once I get home, it's another story.

The flight home is always draining......the flight over is always delightfully.

 

[drron]

Same as Amaroo.But coming home it is if an overnight flight.When at home have a 4 hour nap and then back to my usual regime.However if flying into Sydney it is straight to visit the grandkids who give you no time to get tired.But then usually crash ~ 2000.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Jet lag is technically an interruption to your bodies circadian rhythm caused by changing time zones. The more zones you cross without stopping, the worse the effect. Going west is always easier than going east, as it is easier to stay up late than go to bed early. There are generally two ways to minimise its effect - adopt the sleep pattern of the destination before you leave, or get selective exposure to light at set times once you arrive. There is a good app by Virgin Atlantic called Jet Lagger that works out light exposure times.

So simongr, do you notice it when you get home?

 

[drron]

Jet lag is technically an interruption to your bodies circadian rhythm caused by changing time zones. The more zones you cross without stopping, the worse the effect. Going west is always easier than going east, as it is easier to stay up late than go to bed early. There are generally two ways to minimise its effect - adopt the sleep pattern of the destination before you leave, or get selective exposure to light at set times once you arrive. There is a good app by Virgin Atlantic called Jet Lagger that works out light exposure times.

So simongr, do you notice it when you get home?

But then I dont feel it flying east to LAX but have a minor issue flying west from the US.

 

[amaroo]

But then I dont feel it flying east to LAX but have a minor issue flying west from the US.

Agree, can land at LAX, push onto LAS and enjoy the blight lights for hours....then push on to the East coast and keep going. The flight back home from US is horrid & knocks us around far more than coming home from Europe.

 

[bigjobs]

'West is best' ... well for me anyway. I feel ok when travelling west. When travelling east, I get knocked around. When I go to the US I will be awake at their 2am and then falling asleep at about 1500 the next day. This then moves 1 hour per day. So day 2, awake at 3am falling asleep by 1600 and so on for about a week and then it all is normal.

 

[wingspan]

I don't really feel jet lag. I get 'tired' but no more than if I'd been home and was up late the night before. To help, I don't drink (well actually I don't drink anyway), I start prepping myself for my new time zone by changing the time on my laptop or phone the day before, and I try to get up early at the local time zone, and then things usually work out

 

[cptchris]

Not sure how others feel, but when doing the SYD-LHR-SYD run I find the degree of jet lag depends on the class flying Y - bad, Y + better, J a lot better etc! Whilst following the usual travel guidelines of getting onto local time ASAP for sleeping.

 

[blackcat20]

Agree, can land at LAX, push onto LAS and enjoy the blight lights for hours....then push on to the East coast and keep going. The flight back home from US is horrid & knocks us around far more than coming home from Europe.

I think the further you go into the US the easier it is, as it gets later (therefore closer to going to bed time).

Flying Melb to LA Im usually good until about 5pm, then a 20 min nap will get me right through to my normal bed time. Coming home from LA is no problem, but flying NY-LA-Syd-Mel was a killer, and it took me a couple of days to not be falling asleep by 7pm. Though I probably built up a massive sleep deficit while I was away, and was sick the whole flight home so I didnt get much sleep.

 

[simongr]

Jet lag is technically an interruption to your bodies circadian rhythm caused by changing time zones. The more zones you cross without stopping, the worse the effect. Going west is always easier than going east, as it is easier to stay up late than go to bed early. There are generally two ways to minimise its effect - adopt the sleep pattern of the destination before you leave, or get selective exposure to light at set times once you arrive. There is a good app by Virgin Atlantic called Jet Lagger that works out light exposure times.

So simongr, do you notice it when you get home?

Only thing I notice when I get home is a little tiredness on day one. I tend to attribute that to disrupted and lack of sleep on the flight. That quickly rights itself. I generally get back into sleep patterns pretty quickly.

Although I did wake at 3AM today...

 

[airbridge]

I also suffer more going east than west. Good excuse to go through US coming back from Europe.

 

[haydensydney]

I suffer from jet lag a fair bit, or - should I say that I don't easily integrate to the new timezone as quickly as others.

Even crossing a couple of timezones knocks me around, like Thailand/Hong Kong and even New Zealand (when its a 3 hour difference).

The worse thing isn't how I feel, its having to entertain myself at some ungodly hour watching the limited english speaking TV channels which are invariably CNN, BBC, Discovery or National Geographic. After a day or two, the same repeated episodes start to get eat away at the psyche - much like the movie Groundhog Day. Thats the worse bit about jet lag for me lol

 

[simongr]

Even crossing a couple of timezones knocks me around, like Thailand/Hong Kong and even New Zealand (when its a 3 hour difference).

Yep I too find NZ the hardest to adjust to as well.

 

[cove]

I find toothpicks to keep my eyes open when I get to the other end to not be a real solution.
Princess Fiona uses Melatonin from a compounding pharmac_ and she says it really works well.

 

[Alanslegal]

I don't think I suffer from jet lag either. I do get tired but then I can pin point the cause eg. red eye flights where I leave say SE Asia at 8pm local, arrive into Sydney at 6am local and only have had 2-3 hours shut eye [given 7-8hr flight] ... similarly red eye flights such as LAX-NYC, PER-SYD. I haven't had the ones where you can't sleep or wake up at weird hours of the night/morning ... even when heading all the way to Europe, or east coast USA. I have never had those ones where you need a week to recover, even though I hear them all the time.

 

[Fantic125]

I tend not to sleep very well anyway when I travel, so will wake up early anyway.

For me it depends more on how long I'm at the destination for, rather than the location. If I'm in the US or EU for only a couple of days then it doesn't have any impact when I get back home, but if I'm there for a week or two it usually takes me a few days to get back into routine at home.

 

[drron]

Well just completed 32 hours travelling from home to AMM.Arrived at the hotel at 0800 local timr(now just after 9am).Feel fine.But then after lift off out of BKK and well before the seat belt sign went off I was in the World of Nod and didn't even realise there had been a meal service when I woke 6 hours later.

 

[simongr]

Hmm I think the effects of jet lag might affected by going to bed at 5AM onsunday morning...

 

[Oneworldplus2]

East -> West, not too bad. In fact l landed in Europe yesterday and no jet lag. Flying in J or F also makes a difference.
West -> East, usually have issues.